Jim Lauderdale - Whisper

This album features Ralph and The Clinch Mountain Boys on the final track, I'll Lead You Home. The remainder is decent 'honky-tonk' style country/rock/pop.

I'll Lead You Home was recorded at Masterlink Studios in Nashville, during the sessions for Clinch Mountain Country, which also featured a guest spot by Jim Lauderdale. It is quite a decent number, although Ralph's harmony vocals are a bit low in the mix, and it sounds a bit out of place after listening to half an hour of twangy guitars and loud drums.

Co-producer Blake Chancey:- "Jim's from the Carolina area. He's a big bluegrass fan. He'd been working with Ralph Stanley for years. Jim wrote 'I'll Lead You Home'. He called me up and said, 'Blake, I've got this song. I want to get Ralph Stanley to do it.' We started looking at the logistics. Ralph was in town making this compilation album with all these huge guest artists."
"They said, 'While we're doing this, why don't you come over and cut with Ralph's band?' It was a cool moment for me. I'd never really worked in that type of music. Everything was cut live; everybody playing in a circle. They both sang it at the same time, looking at each other. It was a really cool thing. Lauderdale put that together."
"We walked in, and actually Jim had a real slow, kind of loping version of 'I'll Lead You Home'. Ralph goes, 'Jim, check out the way we've worked it up.' It was an up-tempo, trainy kind of beat thing. And that was pretty much the way we did it, because they worked it up that way."[1]

Personnel on the track are:

Jim Lauderdale: guitar, lead vocal

Ralph Stanley: vocal

Jack Cooke: bass

James Price: fiddle

John Rigsby: mandolin

James Alan Shelton: guitar

Steve Sparkman: banjo

Ralph II Stanley: guitar

Track:

Title:

CD:

(37:48)

1

Goodbye Song

Harlan Howard / Jim Lauderdale

2

Whisper

Jim Lauderdale

3

Sometimes

Frank Dycus / Jim Lauderdale

4

Take Me Down A Path (My Heart Won't Know)

Frank Dycus / Jim Lauderdale

5

She Used To Say That To Me

John Scott Sherrill / Jim Lauderdale

6

In Harm's Way

Frank Dycus / Jim Lauderdale

7

Without You Hear It's Not The Same

Frank Dycus / Jim Lauderdale

8

It's Hard To Keep A Secret Anymore

Jim Lauderdale

9

We're Gone

Harlan Howard / Jim Lauderdale

10

What Do You Say To That

Melba Montgomery / Jim Lauderdale

11

You're Tempting Me

Jim Lauderdale

12

Hole In My Head

Buddy Miller / Jim Lauderdale

13

I'll Lead You Home

Jim Lauderdale

[1] Michael Jarrett's book 'Producing Country: The Inside Story of the Great Recordings' - see Google Books search